'It just happened so quickly': Sydney nurse Kelly Clarke dies in Fiji

The heartbroken husband of a newlywed Sydney nurse who died in Fiji says he was able to comfort her in her final hours.

Kelly Clarke, 24, fell ill on Wednesday while in Fiji for a friend’s wedding with husband Chase, but dismissed it as a stomach bug and went to bed to sleep it off.

After initially being diagnosed with typhoid fever, Mrs Clarke went into septic shock and died in hospital on Friday night while waiting for a medevac team to arrive.

Mr Clarke today said the family had been told Mrs Clarke had died from severe bilateral pneumonia. More than $47,000 has been raised to bring the 24-year-old's body back to Australia. Her grieving family were told it could cost up to $61,000.

"From the first time she said she was sick, to the critical point I took her to the hospital it would have been 20 minutes," Mr Clarke said.

"It was very quick. From that point it just got really critical.

"She was shaking, vomiting, sweating. She was in all sorts of trouble."

Kelly Clarke and her husband at their wedding in April. ()Mrs Clarke was a children's nurse at Westmead Hospital in Sydney. ()